Reviewing with Scaredy Squirrel!

We only had two days of school the week of Thanksgiving, and I didn't want to introduce a new concept before our little vacation.  I decided to review a few of the things we have learned this year and use the book Scaredy Squirrel to do it!  I love that book.  It makes me laugh every time I read it!

If you don't know this book, you need to read it.  The kids LOVE it!  I thought this would be a fun way to review.

We started off reading the first Scaredy Squirrel book. During reading, we wrote our schema, connections, thinking, and questions.

Scaredy Squirrel Schema/Connections

 

 

 We were learning about adjectives the week before, so we then listed adjectives to desribe Scaredy Squirrel.

 

Scaredy Squirrel Adjectives

 

 

We also talked about some of Scaredy Squirrel's character traits....because he has some interesting traits!  We listed a few on this page, but they also had to give me some evidence from the story to support their character traits.

Scaredy Squirrel's Character Traits

 

After talking about character traits and adjectives, we moved on to writing synonyms and antonyms for those character traits and adjectives.

 

Scaredy Squirrel- Synonyms

 

Scaredy Squirrel- Antonyms

 

 

 

I think the class favorite was making the emergency kit.  We discussed each of Scaredy Squirrel's items in his emergency kit and why he had them.  We shared some of the things that we were afraid of and what we could use to help us with that.  Then, the students made their own emergency kit!  They also had to write why they put each item in their emergency kit.  This was FUN!

 

Emergency Kit

 

Here's an example:

 

We also looked at some of the other Scaredy Squirrel books.  One of our favorites was Scaredy Squirrel at Night!  Here are few of the other Scaredy Squirrel titles by Melanie Watt.

After reading a few more Scaredy Squirrel books, we made some predictions about Scaredy Squirrel and what Scaredy Squirrel might do next.

 

Scaredy Squirrel Predictions

 

Melanie Watt has an awesome website dedicated to Scaredy Squirrel:

 

www.scaredysquirrel.com

 

We looked at this site and viewed some of the short video clips, games and printables.  There is also a free Scaredy Squirrel App!!

 

 

I posted their work next to our GIANT Scaredy Squirrel.  I'm thinking he will stay on the wall all year...we might review with him again!

 

 

The students also went home with their own Scaredy Squirrel bookmark!

 

Scaredy Squirrel Bookmark

 

 

 We loved reviewing with Scaredy Squirrel!

 

Writing Workshop: Publishing!

We have been working really hard this week on fixing up our stories for publishing.  I found myself saying the SAME thing over and over about everything they needed to do to publish their stories.  I decided we needed some anchor charts, AND a checklist so I wouldn't go crazy!

I started Here:

 

They worked with their writing partners to fix up their stories.

Some reminders of the things we have been working on in class!

Once they fix up the words,they start on the pictures and the cover for their published story.

These anchor charts are great, but the kids were still bringing me stories that didn't have everything we had discussed.  This is when the checklist came in!  They were very excited to use the "professional" checklist to help them stay on track while publishing....just like a real author.

 

Revision Checklist

 

 

 

Publishing Checklist

When we finish publishing...hopefully tomorrow, we will have our publishing party and all the author's will get to share their stories!  My favorite day!


I also made this new conferencing chart to help me keep track of who I have met with and what they need help with.  I really like the bottom portion where I can take notes about future mini-lessons based on how many students need help and in what area they need help. So far this form is working out great!

 

Writing Workshop Conferencing Notes

 

 

Happy Publishing!